Surely, Drugs and Gangs Can’t Destroy Manual Arts

As a graduate of Manual Arts in the class of 1943, I was saddened to read the article by Robert Yount and Elliott Teaford, and the account by former coach Jeff Engilman of how a school with such a proud heritage and tradition has regressed.

It seems unbelievable that the coaches of Manual would have trouble finding students anxious to participate in sports and only 11 students went out for basketball. It is shocking to think that criminal gangs are siphoning off talented athletes and destroying their futures by closing off an important avenue of opportunity available to many of these young people.

When we were students at Manual, it seemed to many of us that the Toiler tradition was on a par with the Trojan tradition. Manual had a line of great coaches, including the great Jim Blewett and Charles Toney. There were a legion of fine athletes such as Doyle Nave, Don Wiler, Mickey McCardle and Tom Fears.

When Jimmy Doolittle led the raid on Tokyo, the Manual Arts Daily boomed the news that he was a Manual graduate. There were memorial lists of the many Manualites who were killed fighting for their country. And we were proud of such graduates as former Gov. Goodwin Knight and actress Kathryn Grayson.

Surely, Los Angeles’ third oldest high school won’t be destroyed by drugs and gangs. We as a nation need to get our priorities straight. We spend billions of dollars for defense, but when great nations are destroyed it is not always by external enemies.

MYRON C. PETERSON

Leucadia